The Reading Specialist

Podcast are a component of the Internet, which I have had some exposure to. Of course when IPODS came out, I quickly jumped on the bandwagon and stayed on Itunes downloading my favorite songs and albums.  I knew that this technology was capable of a lot, especially the newer versions and yet I had no idea how much until recently. Until recently I saw Podcasts as something soley for social and entertainment purposes, yet in reading literature about them, I realize I was incorrect. 

  When reading this article, I was surprised at how much I did not know as well as the amount I learned.  My first question when engaging in the text, related to how exactly Podcast may relate to academia and myself as an educator.  However, I came to understand that even within its infancy stage, there are ways for educators and learners to use Podcast effectively.  Podcasts may give students the opportunity to be self regulatory within their learning. It may give them an opportunity to communicate freely and creatively.  In retrospect, podcasts may also allow teachers to be self reflective and more creative within their practice. Even so, a question I tend to have is whether or not this method will be effective given the various learning styles students encompass. With this thought, I recognize that Podcast would probably not be used in isolation but more so as a supplement to other methodology.  I view Podcast as a possible tool for a new generation of learners, which is a divergence of usual methods and this may prove very exciting and successful. 

                       Weblog Entry 2: The Rhetoric of PowerPoint

Kjedlsen (2006) stated, “Any kind of technology, any medium, has constraints, contains certain possibilities, and limitations” (p. 14). This statement sums up the thoughts I have regarding PowerPoint in relation to teaching and learning. Kjedlsen’s article brought forth many truths regarding the use of PowerPoint for instruction. Throughout my years of undergraduate and graduate studies PowerPoint presentations have been utilized by professors, students, and even me. However, I quickly came to find out that Power Points can be very tedious, ineffective, and not very interactive. That knowledge of PowerPoint is important because in order to demonstrate effective teaching and learning there must be a high level of meaningful interaction and presentation between the teacher and students.

As I reflect on this article through the lens of my project, reading across media I envision PowerPoint use as ineffective if not used correctly and effective if used creatively. For instance, cognitively the set up of PowerPoint may not be best for struggling readers and language learners. The visual set-up, lack of specific detail, and overbearing information may be difficult for these students to process. On the other hand, it would be interesting to utilize PowerPoint as a way for students to make inferences based on lack of detailed information given. Since PowerPoint set up is very specific and unable to change as much as one might like, a teacher could possible use it to have students identify sequences within a text, main ideas of literature, and other story elements which cause students to elaborate on a specific given thought. One has to realize that a PowerPoint is something supplementary that will not be able to teach a wide variety of concepts. Therefore, it is up to the user to figure out and understand what type of information the technology may be best used for, and what the audience should be able to learn from it.